The Annoying Lump
New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation
Issue 42 | March 2017
Agency
Colenso BBDO
Creative Team
Creative Chairman Nick Worthington Executive Creative Director Steve Cochran Creative Group Heads Maria Devereux Kimberley Ragan
Production Team
Digital Producer Will Thorrat Digital Designer Gene Wheaton Digtal Developer Alex Krivenko Illustrator/Animation Reks Kok Editor Odin Van Daal
Other Credits
Group Business Director Angela Watson Business Director Abbi Barker Planning Director Neville Doyle Media Agency Starcom CEO, New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation Evangelia Henderson Digital Communications Manager, New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation Kim Barker
Date
Quarter 4 2016
Background
The ten-year survival rate for Breast Cancer is 92%, when the cancer is detected with a mammogram. This rate drops to 75% if a lump is the first sign. However, at-risk women in New Zealand put off getting a mammogram, if they get them at all, with 30% of women eligible for free screening ignoring their regular mammogram altogether.
The agency was asked to come up with an idea that specifically targeted these women, while convincing them to get the mammogram that could save their life.
Idea
Online, nothing was better at targeting a specific group than retargeting banners. View a pair of shoes online and they would follow the potential purchaser everywhere. Some people thoughts these banners were annoying. But that's what they wanted to be.
During New Zealand's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, women over 40 were targeted with a very small lump. The lump conveyed a very simple message: "Get rid of me by booking a mammogram." Some women took notice and did. But many didn't.
So the lump persisted, following women everywhere they went online - on news sites, shopping sites, Youtube, and even their social feeds. Every time a woman in the target group saw the lump, it got bigger, and more aggressive. The only way to get rid of the lump was to click on it and book a mammogram.
Results
More women booked a mammogram than ever before, and October 2016 became NZ Breast Cancer Foundation's most successful mammogram drive ever.
Our Thoughts
This is such an ingenious use of retargeting, using the very reason why we dislike banner ads to make them work.
Women in New Zealand may well have found it both spooky and irritating to see these very pink ads every time they went online but the clever part of the idea is how the lump got bigger every time they saw it.
Programmatic offers clients amazing new ways of talking to the right people at the right time and in the right place. It also offers creative people great creative opportunities if they want to grab them. Developing a sequence of messages like this, for instance.
If you’re looking for a definition of creativity, here it is. The application of intelligence to a problem in order to find a simple and cheap solution.